The Laguna Beach Police Department's most recent K-9 team was a German shepherd named Max and his handler, officer Manny Nunez. Max was retired in 2003. COURTESY OF LAGUNA BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT

Police and some members of the public say a canine detective would help Laguna Beach face a mounting problem of drug enforcement.

Larry Bammer, president of the Laguna Beach Police Employees’ Association, has pleaded with the City Council recently to consider adding a K-9 unit (a trained dog and an officer) to the Police Department to help catch people dealing drugs. He pointed to a recent incident at Laguna Beach High School in which officials said two girls were detained for smoking heroin in a bathroom.

“The drug problem in Laguna Beach is far more serious than the police blotter portrays,” Bammer said. “Many of those cases don’t get into the press because of ongoing investigations.”

Unless a suspect gives consent or is on probation or parole, it’s difficult to establish probable cause to search a vehicle. A drug-sniffing dog can walk around a vehicle and alert officers, giving them the legal ability to search the vehicle.

Resident Rita Conn raised the issue again at Tuesday’s council meeting. She told of a friend who asked, “What’s up with heroin in Laguna Beach?” She asked Conn, who formerly worked at a methadone clinic, because a friend of the woman’s daughter recently died of an overdose. Methadone is used to treat opiate dependence.

“As long as we don’t have a police dog, the message that we are giving to the dealers is ‘Welcome. You can come to Laguna. You can get our kids hooked and we can’t search your cars because we don’t have a police dog to give us probable cause,’” Conn said.

Councilman Steve Dicterow said a K-9 isn’t on the table now, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be.

The Laguna Beach Police Department has had two K-9 units. The first was in 1988 with Cpl. Ted Falencki, who recently retired, and his German shepherd, Gero, who was retired in 1996.

Shortly after Gero left, the department got a German shepherd named Max, whose handler was now-former officer Manny Nunez. Max was retired in 2003.

Now the city has to rely on the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and neighboring cities to swoop in when a canine is needed. Laguna isn’t always a quick destination – for example, it can take 45 minutes to get to South Laguna from West Newport, and that’s too long to hold someone, Bammer said in an interview.

“If I stop you now and I think you have drugs and I want a K-9 … I have to ask our dispatcher to ask around the county. I have to cross my fingers that Irvine police, or the sheriffs in Dana Point, or Newport has one,” he said. “That travel time, it could be 20 minutes to a half-hour. Guess what? I can’t keep you that long. It’s a prolonged detention.”

If Laguna police had a dog, it could show up in five minutes, Bammer said.

Bammer also said the Laguna Beach Unified School District could use a K-9 unit if, for example, it suspects a student has drugs in a car on school property.

The department would be paying an officer for 40 hours a week, with four to six hours of that spent on training each week, Bammer said. The canine, training and a vehicle would cost about $61,000, he said. The Police Department could use money allotted for the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program to pay for the vehicle, he said.

The council in January approved an additional officer for the department, which would bring it to 47 officers, something Bammer has asked for. About a decade ago, the department had 50 officers.

But Bammer still hopes a K-9 unit will be considered.

Dicterow has said he saw the effects of low police staffing firsthand during a recent ride-along.

“I will say I will be looking as we approach the next budget toward adding the 48th officer plus the canine,” Dicterow said at a meeting last month. “When I first got on the council, we had more than 50 sworn officers in 1995. If anything, things have gotten worse in the community since then – not only with police but the kind of people who are coming into town. … The force is under tremendous stress … we have to start getting back to that level.”

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